‘We need to normalise seeing women in this industry’

What is it like at sea?

Being a fisherman is a lifestyle choice, not just a job: your day can be anything from 10 to 16 hours long. The situations can be quick and difficult, so you need to make sure you take the right precautions to stay safe and counteract whatever’s going on in the environment around you.

I like the unpredictability of it. The job is challenging, but it’s the type of stress where I’m learning something.

We fish for as much of the year as possible, from 36-degree summer days to the cold winter months.

We wear oil skins, which are traditional yellow dungarees and wellies. I don’t know what it is about oil skins, but they make you feel, “I’m made for this.”

In the winter, I wear as many layers as possible: two pairs of trousers, two pairs of socks, long sleeve thermal, a T-shirt, a jumper, an oilskin top and gloves.  

The sea is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so you do have to fish at ungodly hours, like 12am and 1am. It helps if I put on an old school rock playlist, which really blows the cobwebs out.  

We have various playlists for specific reasons. If it’s a really hot summer’s day, I’ll put on a reggae playlist (I love the song ‘Reggae Shark’). Nigel has a theory that lobsters like Cardi B, so if we’re going crabbing, we’ll play her songs.

I love it when you’re offshore on a warm day, everything’s still and all you can see is the sea and windfarms. I enjoy the isolation: your phone signal’s gone, no one can get in touch and it’s just you, the skipper, the boat and your surroundings.

We live and share so much on our phones – people are contactable 24/7 – and I like the fact that sometimes I’m not. 

Did you feel hesitant about entering a male-dominated profession?

I wasn’t put off entering the industry because it was predominantly male. The thing that was holding me back was this preconceived idea that I wouldn’t be physically strong enough for the job, and I wouldn’t want a man to risk his safety for me.

Looking back, I now realise that a good skipper will know what your limits are – it’s all about training and awareness. You’re never going to put yourself in a position of danger.   

The majority of people in this industry that I’ve encountered are almost proud to have a woman working as a fisherman.

Globally, I get messages and support from people saying, "You’re doing an amazing job, it’s so refreshing to see this". It boosts me up a little bit more and makes me feel that I’m accepted, and my contributions are recognised.  

However, getting into this industry is difficult, especially if you don’t live in a coastal setting. Before you even set foot on a commercial fishing boat, you need to have taken a Sea Survival course, which can be expensive.  

We need to normalise seeing women in this industry, which is why I share so much on social media, so people realise that women can be fishermen, and they can be as good as men.

I’m trying to raise awareness of empowering women – not just to be a fisherman – but to be anything you want to be. The same goes for men. If men want to do something that’s predominantly a women’s job, go and do it. You’ve got nothing to lose. If you don’t like it, or it doesn’t work out, then you’ve learnt something.  

I would love to see more women on boats, or at least given the opportunity to try. I’m working on a project to see if I can potentially invite women on the boat to give them taster sessions. They can be as involved as they like, in an environment with other women so things don’t get mansplained.  

There’s lots of change afoot in the industry – for example, fishing boats that are under 10 metres like ours now have to use an app to estimate the weight of their catch before it leaves the boat – so I wanted to reach out and speak to other fishermen who might be experiencing similar things.

What I didn’t expect was this mass following of non-fishermen who were really interested in my work. And it makes sense: fishing isn’t the kind of job where you can poke your head in the door and watch what’s happening. It’s like a mysterious world – you see boats go in and out of a harbour, but what happens in between?  

I try to give as much insight into my work as possible. People seem fascinated by all the different things that come up in the pots – particularly starfish.

I also get a lot of questions about how things work. I love that people are curious to find out more because ultimately this is where your food is caught. It’s sad that 80% of the fish caught in this country goes abroad.   

But trying to make fishing financially viable is getting harder, which is disheartening. The cost of living has gone up massively, fuel prices are at an all-time high, but the price of fish hasn’t gone up that much. The price for whelks is lower than what it was in the pandemic. We have Fair Trade standard for food produce and other items, so it would be great to see similar measures in place for small-scale British caught fish, as well as stabilised fish prices.

If people can understand the hard work, time and effort that goes into catching fish, then maybe they’ll change tactic and seek out something that’s in season and been caught in England.

We need to keep looking and challenging where our food is coming from. If I influence one person to make a choice to go and support a small-scale fisherman, then I’m happy.